Wednesday February 4, 2015 - Paracas, Peru

Wednesday February 4, 2015 – Paracas, Peru

We got us at 7:30 and went for just coffee.  We met our tour in the Lounge at 9:15 and loaded on a bus to get to town.  They took us to a beautiful hotel, a Starwood property, and we loaded on a large boat for our tour to Ballestras Island.  We put life jackets on and headed out to sea.  We stopped to see a pod of dolphin and then a huge group of pelicans.  Wonder what a group of pelicans are called?

The Oceania Regatta docked in Paracas, Peru

 

The "candelabra" in Peru

We then headed on to “the candelabra” which was created in the sands on the side of a hill about 500 BC.  No one has touched it.  The winds don’t impact it since the winds don’t blow on it.  And there is no rain so the rains haven’t messed it up.  We got lots of good pictures.

We then headed over to Ballestras Island and saw beautiful rock formations, lots of birds, sea lions, and some penguins.  We went to the “nursery” where a lot of sea lions had been born.  They raise them here and then head out to other places.  They used to “mine guano” (bird poop) here for fertilizer.  There was definitely a smell noticed.

One of the old guano mining platforms

A beach of pelicans

Beautiful rock formations - this one had sea lions on the shore underneath

Sea lion sunning on the rocks

More beautiful rock formations

Beach of sea lions - nursing the young ones

Rock formations within rock formations!  Stunning!

We enjoyed the island and then headed back to Paracas.  We loaded on the bus and headed back to the ship.  There was some small booths with the same old/same old but I got a couple of post cards for the girls.

We went to the gym and did a short workout and then showered and relaxed for the evening.

We went to the Horizons Bar and had our drinks with Putu.  We went to the Grand Dining Room and got the last table for 2.  We can see that we need to arrive about 8 or 8:30 to get a table without sharing.  Dinner was good.  We had some good wines too.

We went to the Lounge and watched a show with one of the singers and a magician.  It was entertaining.

Then we were off to bed.